Page 84 of The Coworker
I take a quick glance at the stairwell. “Careful what you say. The walls are thin around here.”
“Right. Sorry.” He clears his throat. “Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate you putting me up here, and I’ll be out of your hair soon.”
I blink at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh.” He lifts a shoulder. “I forgot to mention. I heard from my lawyer, and apparently, my mom left me the farmhouse in her will. So after I get that place cleaned up, I can live there. I figure I’ll head over tomorrow.”
The farmhouse. The place where it all happened. Themassacre.
“How could you want to live there?” I say. “After everything that happened…”
His eyebrows inch upward. “That was myhomefor eighteen years, Brooke. And honestly, it’s not like I have a lot of options.”
“You can stay here as long as you want.”
“I don’t want to impose.”
“You won’t be.”
He looks down at the plate in front of him, stained with pizza grease. “I appreciate your generosity, but this is not my home. I need my own place. You get that, right?”
I get it, but I don’t like it. That farmhouse only appears in my nightmares these days. I can’t imagine how he could possibly want to live there. The thought of going anywhere near it makes me physically ill.
“If that’s what you want,” I finally say.
Just don’t ask me to visit.
We get everything cleaned up from dinner, and I go upstairs with Shane to collect some bedding for the guest bedroom. I grab him an extra blanket too, because it’s started snowing, and the room seems a bit chilly. He insists he can make his own bed, so I’ll leave him to it while I say good night to Josh.
Josh is done with his homework and is quietly reading in bed. He puts down his book when he sees me walk in.
“I brushed my teeth,” he tells me.
I settle down on the edge of his bed. For the first five years of Josh’s life, the two of us shared a bed out of necessity. (It was excellent for my love life.) And now the kid has his own room. “Good job. All the homework is done?”
“Yep.” He hesitates. “Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Why is that guy Shane staying with us?”
“He’s an old friend.” The lie is getting easier and easier. “He’s just going to be staying a few nights. Why?”
Josh shrugs his skinny shoulders. “No reason.”
“Don’t you like him?”
He hesitates, and my stomach sinks. Josh likeseveryone. Although I thought it was possible he and Shane might not be the best of friends immediately, it never even slightly occurred to me that Josh wouldn’t like him.
“He’s okay,” Josh says carefully.
“Was he mean to you?”
“No.”
“Is there something you don’t like about him?”
“No…” But again, there’s that hesitation. There’s something he’s not telling me, and it makes me crazy that I can’t get it out of him.
